The Traveller's Magazine
You know it’s bad when an airline tries to lure its most frequent fliers into cashing in their air mile points. Not for free flights however but for a course to teach them how to survive a plane crash. Morbid as it may be, British Airways is doing just that!
Passengers at your ready! If you’ve got enough air miles saved up you could have the opportunity to take part in a course instructing you how to survive a plane crash. If you fly Economy, don’t worry. This course is reserved only for the airline’s Executive Club members.
This 4-hour “crash” course (seriously, no pun intended) will start taking place next year, costing £125. Not bad if you consider that it could mean the difference between life and death should the plane you’re in crash. The course will be run by BA Manager Andy Clubb who had this to say about the upcoming course,
“It makes passengers safer when travelling by giving additional skills and information, it dispels all those internet theories about the ‘brace position, and it just gives people so much more confidence in flying.”
Our question is… why? The course was suggested by BP who sends its staff members to sometimes remote countries in the world where safety standards are not as high as in the EU. With proper training, passengers can learn exactly what to do and how to increase their chances of survival in the worst possible scenario.
The course will cover simple topics like how to release a seatbelt under pressure, locating your life jacket under your seat, even a chance to make an emergency escape down the evacuation slides! Don’t worry, you won’t lose your job like Steven Slater did!
But for those non-Executive Club members, what about you? Here are three tips, golden rules you might call them, for surviving a plane crash. We’ll give these for free, then you can save your £125 to buy a flight from London to Rome instead of signing up for a airplane safety course.
How to survive a plane crash
1. Master the brace position. This means keep your head down, near your knees and use your arms to cover your head. While you may think that’s impossible on a Ryanair flight with so little room between you and the seat in front, try as best as you can. Ladies, the safety card in the back pocket of the seat in front of you says to remove jewellery and high heels. Give yourself a break and don’t wear any. That’s one less thing to think about while the plane is crashing.
2. Have a plan. We know you’ve maybe seen the in-flight safety video 10000 times but really. Take a quick look at your nearest exit and how you’re going to get there. When checking in, choose the safest seats, within one or two rows of the exit seats. There is a lot of controversy over the safest seats in a plane but according to a study made by Popular Mechanics in 2007, turns out that passengers sitting in the rear of a plane had a survival rate of 69%.
3. Keep calm and carry on. Honest. After a crash it’s as essential to be fast as it is to stay calm. If you’ve already rehearsed what to do, then it should be easier to jump into action rather than remaining seated, stunned, unable to move. Studies show that there is only about a 2 minute window for getting out of the plane after a crash. Act quickly leaving everything behind.
If you’re really scared of flying, here’s how to deal.
Would you sign up for a course like this? Do you think it’s fair that BA only offers the course to Executive Club members?
